Ideas for the IDM

Hope that everyone had a great time, even those who got bad game votes. With only two bad game votes that came out of all the games, I thought that was a testiment to the players that played. It definitely got rid of the point shaving that had been going on at some tournaments. I still think that we will tweak the numbers a little for next years event, but I was certainly a lot happier about this years tournament then I have been in a while. Not using overlord, helped, it was giving out way to many errors. I always look for feedback and would just like to thank Aaron Chapman, Mr. Hakala, and a couple of other guys for being bold enough to tell me what they honestly liked and disliked about this years tournament.
Not to switch gears to badly, Is there anything you would like to see at our 40K event in June?

I went ahead and split this out for you so we didn't get cross event confusion.

Ideas for IDM -
1. You're doing 2k. That's already a big thumbs up in my book.

2. If there's a comp/sports scoring then i'd like to see it along the lines of Shiloh's. I like simple, non-pointsnipe sports and comp.
"Would you play this opponent again?" Y/N
"Would you like to play again this army again, regardless of who is playing it?" Y/N
-real simple stuff.

3. I liked the scenarios from last year - game 4 notwithstanding. I look forward to more scenarios along those lines.

4. Paint criteria up in advance. I've got 4 months to make my marines purty!

All the missions were fine last year minus the 4th one. It ended up being a crap shoot between me and my (grumpy chaos) opponent. Honestly the 4th mission would have been alright too if you you couldn't gain a counter turn 1.

I personally do not like the idea of going up to 2k points as it allows for more nasty combos and more spam. I know I am in a minority here and will fully expect it to be 2k.

I like comp but think its executed poorly 95% of the time.

Sportsmanship should be easy questions like at Shiloh I would suggest maybe each bad game vote is -5 and each best game vote is +5. It should balance out well. Your rewarding the people that show up and make the tournament fun for other people while people that are less than enjoyable are getting punished. I think this will work better than the +1 for best game. Lets take my score for example I got two best game votes so earned a +2 and got a bad game vote that was -5, so essentially I got a -3 for giving two people the best games of the weekend. I think +5 for best game vote would give you a better spread too as the Shiloh was the difference between the worst sports and best sports was only 7 points.

The only true way to get rid of sports snipping is to remove sports completely. This is something I don't want to see happen. If you have a complete asshole table 5 people in a tournament and be an ass about it and win a couple years in a row and you'll most certainly have people stop going. That being said it is also completely possible to table someone and still have a good sporting game. 3 people at Shiloh had high sports and won most of their games and did so pretty handily. I usually end up in the top 10% and usually have high sports... Minus Shiloh!

On Painting I think however you do it, it should be posted a head of time to let everyone know how your going to vote. The last thing we need is another big waaagh 2009. People paint up their soldiers and are proud of them even if they look horrible. If your going to give them a 10 out of 50 they should know why before the tournament starts.

And something I am pretty passionate about that borderlines rage. For the love of all that is good and holy don't give painting awards to people that didn't paint their own army. As an artist that pisses me the F(*$ off. Give them score appropriate for sure, just not an award to hang on their wall while the 10 year old who actually painted his stuff goes home empty handed for trying.

All that being said though, the Shiloh was the funnest tournament I've been to in a while and hope that there are more ran by your crew in years to come.

(Edited for Grammersourausrex)

I think I'm alone in my opinion, but I'd like to see it played at 1500 points (40k). Since that is what the major ones are played at, and I prefer it over 1850 and 2000.

Also, I noticed the detailed scoring on sooie. It would be nice to see a rubic before the tourney so we could know how scoring worked beforehand.

bdix wrote:

I think I'm alone in my opinion, but I'd like to see it played at 1500 points (40k). Since that is what the major ones are played at, and I prefer it over 1850 and 2000..

You couldn't be further from the truth. 1500 Points for the win!!! ♥

1850 was last year. I like the step up in size and it will help the wargamescon contingent when we go to Austin after independence since it's the same size.

I don't like sportsmanship. If it's sport it should simply be 'should this person be allowed to continue playing in the tournament or is he too much of an @ hole to stay?'

I really dont like comp. If there's going to be comp why not just ban certain units? Or place spam restrictions. Of course that would be arbitrary - but then again so is any comp system. Bring the pain in 40k. Nothing is unstoppable and nothing is balanced perfectly.

I would like to see Matt drunk on beer specials. You choose the species or type of Matt.

Tell the hotel we are sweaty gamers. Chill that room out. Last year was hot. I smelled things - some of it may have been me.

I liked the missions last year except for #4 as well. Meat grinder in the middle.

I recommend a big digital clock or a projected timer image on the wall for remaining round time. I love that!

I also don't agree with 2k, you don't have to make choices at that point level, I prefer 1500, but I know 1850 is the norm played in America. Also comp is hard one to do anymore in 40k, if you stop spam, you can hurt armies that are just trying to do it for fluffier reasons or just for fun( my Dark Eldar are running 56 wyches in 6 units total, is it good probably not). Also what one person could think is broken could just because someone got it handed to them during the game due to their own mistakes. I am looking forward to this year and hoping I get totally painted by that time.

I like 2,000 because that's what I'm accustomed to playing.

One thing I liked last year was the amount of terrain and the variety of boards; however, there was one "tree board of death" that drastically impeded certain armies.

On Sports, I like a simple three part system: awesome, bland, or deserving of physical violence. I think a one or two point swing per game either way would be about the limit over the course of 2 days. 5 points just seems like it could have too much effect.

I've never run into the "other artist" issue that Matt mentioned (most likely because when it comes to painting he and I aren't playing the same sport much less being in the same league), but his vehemence and barely suppressed rage have convinced me of the utter horror of such shenanigans.

I dislike comp. It's a tournament. Bring your big stick, and if you knock my teeth in, I should have brought mine too.

I also hope that the genuinely congenial nature of the event stays the same. Most of the folks I've played at the event have been friendly and enjoyable to play against. This attitude seems to start with the TOs, and I hope it stays the same.

Even though I don't really drink beer, I do like the specials as it tends to mellow folks out. Some sort of Damn Good Pies deal would be awesome.

I may be in the minority here, but I also like it when you get a mission pack at the beginning of the tourney. I like being able to look at the missions especially if they diverge greatly from the standard missions or have multiple criteria for winning.

Later,
Monkey